In 1945, a self-taught radar tube specialist, Percy Spencer, began working on a new vacuum tube called a magnetron when he accidentally discovered microwave cooking.

With busy lifestyles ruling the convenience food market, packagers become more and more creative to keep their food in front of rushing consumers.

Today’s food and beverage segments are packed with convenience items, grab-and-go packages, single-serve sundries and all things easy.

Packaging lines must be fined-tuned, efficient and free of hold-ups, break-downs and stoppages. New innovations in cartoning machinery not only offer speed, but they bulk up on versatility and pack new methods for an ever growing market.

According to the North American label Market Study 2013 from AWA Alexander Watson Associates (www.awa.bv.com), the label market grew 3.8% from 2011 to 2012.

The 3100 Series Easy Pack system from Cobalt Packaging (www.cobaltpackaging.com) features two independent, portable, flexible machines, the 100 Series Case Former-Packer and the 300 Series Collator.

As this issue of Food & Beverage Packaging counts down the top 50 beverage packagers, it only seems right to toast the beverage innovators of the beer and wine markets for their innovations.

For consumers, convenience is the main dish when it comes to meat, poultry and seafood packaging.

According to a report from the American Pet Products Association regarding industry statistics and trends, Americans are pampering their pets by purchasing items for them that go well beyond the bare necessities. Pets now receive gourmet and organic food options with special consideration for allergies, dietary restrictions or a special healthy diet.

X-Rays get a power boost: Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (www.thermoscientific.com) has upgraded its popular Thermo Scientific Xpert C400 X-ray system for detecting metals and other foreign objects in food. By adding an X-ray source with twice the power of the original model, the system is better suited for thicker, denser products and high speed production. The system targets a broad range of food applications including challenging wet and semi-frozen products, as well as metalized packaging structures that do not lend themselves to metal detection.